On June 14, 1909, the sixth president of the Republic of Brazil, in office, died. Afonso Pena (1847-1909) was in the third year of his term and had severe pneumonia. The deputy then took over the Executive: the politician and lawyer Nilo Peçanha (1867-1924).
Of humble origins, he is considered the first black president of the United States. But at the beginning of the 20th century, with the preponderance of racist theories and an idea of whitening the population, their own racial identity became an object of controversy.
“Strictly, he was a mestizo”, explains historian Petrônio Domingues, professor at UFS (Federal University of Sergipe), to BBC News Brasil, remembering that according to the categories officially used by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), he would be classified as brown.
“That wasn’t a question [naquela época]. Starting because he did not recognize himself as being of African descent. Secondly, because he was the target of racialized cartoons and jokes from the press, but socially he was not seen or treated through the lens of racism that dared to speak its name in the First Republic”, adds the professor.
“It can be said that he was racialized mainly by opponents, enemies or in situations of political disputes”, says Domingues.
For historian Vitor Soares, who maintains the podcast História em Meia Hora, it is necessary to emphasize that Peçanha governed the country “in a period deeply marked by scientific racism”. “Doctrines such as phrenology and eugenics were gaining strength in the country, legitimizing theories that sought to justify the marginalization of black and mixed-race people,” he tells BBC News Brasil.
He recalls that at the time theories such as those defended by the doctor and anthropologist Nina Rodrigues (1862-1906) were powerful and “associated physical characteristics with behavioral predispositions, reinforcing stigmas that perpetuated “.
“Described as a mulatto by his contemporaries, Peçanha became a constant target of ridicule. In the press, he was caricatured in cartoons and jokes that emphasized his skin color in a derogatory way. During his youth, he was pejoratively called ‘the mestizo from Morro do Coco’, in reference to the small rural district of its origins”, adds Soares. “These attacks reflect the structural racism of Brazilian society, which saw the rise of a mixed-race man to power as a threat to the established racial hierarchy.”
“It was in the middle of a time when the process of racialization of relationships was underway. But also a time when people were betting or expecting the rise of the mulatto and, perhaps, the extinction of black people”, he explains to BBC News Brasil historian Lucimar Felisberto dos Santos, member of the Rede de Historiadorxs Negrxs and author of “Between Slavery and Freedom: Africans and Creoles in the Times of Abolition”, among others.
The historian says that “the bet was on mestizos to lead the whitening of Brazilian society.”
“Nilo Peçanha was criticized as ‘mulatto’, a term used in a pejorative way, and there was no prospect of elevating his character, his importance, his representation as a brown or black person”, analyzes historian Victor Missiato to BBC News Brasil, researcher at the Intellectuals and Politics in the Americas Group, at Unesp (Universidade Estadual Paulista). “There wasn’t that at the time.”
“The situation favored the arrival of foreign immigrants to Brazil, with the idea that white Europeans would, in a certain way, bring progress to Brazil. And that, very much in quotation marks, the black race would lose strength, disappear, from miscegenation with a superior white race, also in quotation marks”, he adds.
Marriage was controversial
Born in Campos dos Goytacazes, in the north of Rio de Janeiro, he was the son of a baker and a farmers’ daughter. With six siblings, he had a poor childhood on a farm. The family moved to the city when Peçanha reached school age. It was in the urban environment that his father gained the epithet by which he would be known, he became “Sebastião da bakery”.
He studied law at the Faculdade do Largo São Francisco, in , but ended up completing the course at the Faculdade do Recife.
His marriage shocked society at the time: the bride, Ana de Castro Belisário Soares de Sousa, known as Anita, was from a wealthy family in Campos dos Goytacazes, granddaughter of a viscount and great-granddaughter of two barons.
As her parents were against marriage — with a poor, mulatto man —, Ana ran away from home and went to live with an aunt. After the marriage became official, on December 6, 1895, several relatives of the Rio de Janeiro aristocracy cut ties with her.
“The marriage was initially rejected by Anita’s family, who considered the marriage of a young woman of noble blood to someone poor and mixed race to be inappropriate”, explains historian Soares. “Anita even ran away from home to complete the union, a social scandal that reflected the barriers imposed by the racial and class structures of the time.”
Personal issues aside, Peçanha had a solid political career. In 1890, recognized for his engagement in the abolitionist and republican struggles, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the first Magna Carta of the Republic.
He was a deputy until 1902. The following year, he became president of Rio de Janeiro — a position equivalent to that of current governor. In 1906 he was elected vice-president of the Republic.
“From marriage to his relationships within the political nucleus, even if he was linked to part of the Rio elite, the fact that he was a black person, called a mulatto at the time, was an issue”, comments the historian to BBC News Brasil Phillippe Arthur dos Reis, researcher at Unicamp (State University of Campinas). “It had an impact on his person as a politician.”
Reis says that politicians and opinion makers at the time who attacked Nilo Peçanha used to mention “the color of his skin, a condition almost always seen as a caricature, as sloppiness, as if it were the color of someone who did not have the ability to manage the country “.
“The physical features were highlighted [pelos críticos]curly hair was associated with the issue that he would not necessarily be a prepared person”, he says.
In the Presidency
When he took over the government of Brazil, replacing Afonso Pena, he brought with him the motto “peace and love”. It was an attempt to appease the opposition. “Some newspapers even published political comments that questioned the president’s ability to lead the country due to the fact that he was black”, philosopher and sociologist Paulo Niccoli Ramirez, professor at FESPSP (Fundação Escola de Sociologia de Paulo ) and ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing).
“In other words: despite him circulating in political circles dominated by whites, part of public opinion questioned him, associating the fact that he was black with possible difficulties in his ability to lead the country”, he observes.
“Paradoxically, when Peçanha achieved prominence in national politics, the Brazilian elite, aligned with whitewashing ideals, tried to ‘correct’ its image”, says Soares. “Official photographs and portraits were manipulated to lighten his skin and bring him closer to Eurocentric standards, in an attempt to erase any trace of racial diversity in prestigious public figures.”
In his short stay at Palácio do Catete, he left two important marks. He was the one who created the Indian Protection Service, a body that preceded the current Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples).
Peçanha also founded the Escola de Aprendizes Artífices, the first technical education institution in the country without links to the military. This school is considered the precursor of Cefet (Federal Center for Technological Education). And because of this, in 2011 he was honored with a federal law that made him the patron of professional and technological education in Brazil.
Historian Reis also recalls that Peçanha sought to find solutions to reduce the problem of lack of housing in the country. He had experience in this, as it was an issue faced during his government in Rio previously. And, judging by the repercussions in the press at the time, this was a matter in which he convinced public opinion that he was a capable person.
“The matter is of utmost importance and can and should be resolved by the government of Dr. Nilo Peçanha, who has already shown that he is a man with the capacity to resolve the most serious problems without delay”, published the newspaper A Imprensa, from Rio , on August 19, 1909.
His term ended on November 15, 1910. After the Presidency, he continued in politics. He was a senator, again president of Rio, Minister of Foreign Affairs and once again a senator. In 1921, he was a candidate for President, being defeated by Artur Bernardes (1875-1955).
Nilo Peçanha died in 1924, victim of a heart problem caused by Chagas disease. There are two Brazilian municipalities that honor him with their name: Nilo Peçanha, in Bahia, and Nilópolis, in the metropolitan region of Rio.
Debate racial
“The fact that we have a black person in politics has always been and will always be an issue in Brazil. Even more so a president. We live in a racialized country, with an extremely violent history of slavery, recent and still present”, comments Salvarani. “Nilo Peçanha is an interesting character precisely because he breaks this racial barrier of political representation, playing an important role in the history of our country.”
Peçanha’s racial issue is a topic of debate due to the symbolism of the fact that he was a black president — even at a time when this issue was not put on the table in an identity-based way like today. Therefore, there are many controversies.
“In fact, he was accused of being unresolved with his racial identity and having retouched official photographs to hide his Afro-descendant origin, but I don’t think this is whitewashing,” says Domingues. “The importance of recognizing their blackness today has to do, firstly, with a reckoning with a certain historical narrative that operated with the invisibilities and erasures of Afro-Brazilian characters. Secondly, with the issues of the present time, in that Afro-Brazilian history and culture or, rather, racial issues gain prominence on the national agenda, based on black protagonism, affirmative action policies, the debate on representation, etc.”
Historian Santos understands that Peçanha’s racial identity was not hidden at the time, precisely because of what the newspapers published, which used to describe him as a “dark-skinned boy, with black, curly hair, a deep and superior look.”
“In recent years, black movements have also understood that historical references in a prominent position could contribute to strengthening ethnic belonging, and to the pride of this belonging, for a large portion of Brazilians made up of black men and women and indigenous people”, she adds. “Thus, based on historical research, the protagonism of personalities like Nilo Peçanha is recovered. These actions contribute to the process of emancipation of black people in terms of symbolic reparation.”
Soares says that “recognizing Nilo Peçanha’s blackness is an act of historical and political rescue, especially in a country that has systematically denied and erased the contributions of black people in leadership positions.”
“During his life and career, Peçanha was the victim of practices that sought to steal and hide his racial identity,” he states. “This is the story of stolen color, as some historians describe it and, in the case of Peçanha, deliberately hidden.”
The historian recalls that even the official biography of Nilo Peçanha, written by his relative, the journalist, lawyer and politician Celso Peçanha (1916-2016), “mentioned nothing about his racial origins”. “And his descendants consistently denied that he was a mulatto, despite his dark complexion,” he points out.
“Blackness is historically attributed. Nilo Peçanha not recognizing himself and not being recognized as black is extremely important for us to understand the social nature of racism and the processes of racialization of black people, especially in politics”, says sociologist Salvarani. “Now the sociological reasons for these political-racial processes involving Nilo Peçanha are unique and a unique opportunity for more radicalized people to be encouraged to participate in politics at its various levels and spaces.”
Ramirez pays attention to another issue: the teaching materials that teach history in Brazil. “Most school books neglect the fact that he is black. And this shows how history is always the story of a white elite, forgetting the black protagonists of this country”, he comments.
